Backgrounds of Military Characters - an observation.

[JPL]

I guess I'd just start characters at different levels. With a twelve-man Special Forces team, I might give each player one veteran and one rookie, and let them assemble the optimal sqaud for each mission.

With Blood & Guts especially, I think character level must been seen as a combination of training and "experience" in the traditional sense. A beginning Green Beret character might only a few years out of high school and might have never actually been in combat, but he'll probably be sixth level or so, just by virtue of his intensive training.

Blood and Guts II, eh? Another item on the credit card to explain to my wife...

 

[FraserRonald]

Hey All

I would say that the level of detail in the background is as much a result of the campaign-flavour and DM style as the style of game itself (military vs. average joe characters). It could be a military campaign only loosely based in reality (Joe was an infantry guy who became special forces).

One thing I'm doing in my latest campaign is to award skills and feats based on detailed backgrounds. Yeah, it's outside of the rules and there may be balance issues, but I'm interested to try it out.

B&G II. A tasty treat! When when when? And what will we see in it? Just a hint?

Cheers all.

 

[Vigilance]

B&G II. A tasty treat! When when when? And what will we see in it? Just a hint?

Mostly a better way to handle military characters mechanically. I loved B&G but as time passed felt I could now do it better. 5 new advanced classes, advanced training talents, better balanced MOS feats, etc.

The more I used B&G the more it bugged me that being admitted into a spec ops unit involved a change in class.

The book will resemble Blood and Fists, which probably should have been my model for B&G to begin with.

Chuck

 

[Breakdaddy]

Mostly a better way to handle military characters mechanically. I loved B&G but as time passed felt I could now do it better. 5 new advanced classes, advanced training talents, better balanced MOS feats, etc.

The more I used B&G the more it bugged me that being admitted into a spec ops unit involved a change in class.

The book will resemble Blood and Fists, which probably should have been my model for B&G to begin with.


Chuck

Youre going to template them in now, instead of separate classes? Not bad. I wait with a great deal of anticipation for this product. Any idea on when it will be released? Rough guesstimates?

 

[Vigilance]

Not templates really... your specialties in the military will open up talent options, so a Tanker will have his own Talent and Bonus feat list irregardless of his class.

The 5 advanced classes will be Assault Training, Recon Training, Infantry Training, Specialist Training and Leadership Training.

So a Tanker could be from any one of those classes, each with some core abilities unique to them, with their own skill lists, BAB and HD but his MOS Tanker feat would give him its own skill and talent options regardless of which class he was in.

So MOS Feats will work like Martial Arts styles in BNF... with the advanced training talents taking the place of martial arts masteries (which were really talents, I just didnt call them that).

As I said Im about half way done... my guess would be a couple of weeks (give or take layout and editing and such).

Chuck

 

[Ranger REG]

Speaking of Talents, I have only seen a few d20 Modern products (including Vigilance's work) that provide new Talent trees for low-level hero classes. That and Occupation.

 

[JPL]

Most interesting.

I see the classes from B&G 1.0 as the classic "organizational prestige classes" --- membership in the Navy SEALs or Delta Force implies specialized training you don't get anywhere else. But this eliminates the need for a separate class for each unit, and that might be a good thing.

I'll be interested to see how the actual individual units factor into things.

 

[FraserRonald]

Not templates really... your specialties in the military will open up talent options, so a Tanker will have his own Talent and Bonus feat list irregardless of his class.

The 5 advanced classes will be Assault Training, Recon Training, Infantry Training, Specialist Training and Leadership Training.

So a Tanker could be from any one of those classes, each with some core abilities unique to them, with their own skill lists, BAB and HD but his MOS Tanker feat would give him its own skill and talent options regardless of which class he was in.

So MOS Feats will work like Martial Arts styles in BNF... with the advanced training talents taking the place of martial arts masteries (which were really talents, I just didnt call them that).

As I said Im about half way done... my guess would be a couple of weeks (give or take layout and editing and such).

Chuck

I think that's an excellent idea. The PrCs that I did for Raid On Ashkashem and the Qalashar Device are similar. Bother refer to a specialty (Counter-Terrorism Assaulter and Special Operations Marksman) rather than a unit, so a CT Assaulter could be from Delta, SEALS, SAS, what have you. Also, some of the talent trees are shared, so that both have access to the same Firearms Training talent tree. I was hoping to expand on this in a specific special operations forces book for SEP, but our production schedule could delay it for quite some time. With B&G II out, might not be a need for it!

Sounds really good, Chuck. I'm sure this product will blow the doors off military-style d20 Modern just like the original B&G did.

Take care all.

 

[Committed Hero]

Not templates really... your specialties in the military will open up talent options, so a Tanker will have his own Talent and Bonus feat list irregardless of his class.

Sounds like excellent stuff already.

 

[Vigilance]

I see the classes from B&G 1.0 as the classic "organizational prestige classes" --- membership in the Navy SEALs or Delta Force implies specialized training you don't get anywhere else.

Exactly.

I was on a real old school kick when I wrote BNG and it shows- 5 different classes just for the special forces... since I had this dream in my head of each member of the A_team having his own class...

However, along with that "1st edition feel" (If I may use that expression), came a lot of the things I did not like about first edition. The "special operations talents" in BNG, which were included literally the day before its release as a PDF were the beginning of a move in that direction.

BNG: Soldiers was another step in that direction (a big one), and really convinced me I could revisit BNG and do it better.

Chuck